Major League Baseball is officially the biggest shit show in all of sports. The negotiations between the owners and the players have become so mind-numbing and exhausting that most fans I speak to couldn’t care less if there even is a season played in 2020.
Leave it to MLB to alienate and turn off their own fans at such an epic and grandiose scale.
It’s unfathomable how little regard these pompous, greed-engorged collection of billionaires have for the dedicated fans who have fueled their undeserved riches for decades.
Leading this mess — and I use the term “leading” loosely — is the commissioner of baseball Rob Manfred, who up until now has only managed to make things exponentially worse.
On Monday, Manfred announced that he was no longer confident there would be a major league season in 2020, despite all but guaranteeing there would be a season five days earlier.
It was a complete 180 and a sharp reversal that illuminated just how indecisive Manfred has been throughout this whole process, and how he has lost the confidence of the owners he is supposed to represent.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that Manfred is reluctant to impose a season on players against their will because the Players Association would likely counter such a move by filing a claim for financial damages.
Tony Clark, executive director of the Players Association, hit back at Manfred with a striking and biting response on Tuesday.
“Players are disgusted that after Rob Manfred unequivocally told players and fans that there would 100 percent be a 2020 season, he has decided go to back on his word and is now threatening to cancel the entire season,” Clark said.
“This latest threat is just one more indication that Major League Baseball has been negotiating in bad faith since the beginning.”
While there’s plenty of blame to go around for this ugly quagmire baseball finds itself in, most of the blame still lies plainly at the feet of the owners who were never honest brokers in this whole process.
The owners keep crying poverty but have never opened their books to prove it…
And then, in the midst of all this mistrust and deflection, MLB had the gall to announce they reached a billion-dollar deal with Turner Sports. Are you f’king kidding me?
With the players and owners now firmly and stubbornly entrenched in their positions, baseball needs a leader more than ever to cut through the muck and mire and bring these two sides back to the negotiating table.
But instead we have a commissioner who is incapable of rallying owners to a unified commitment to negotiate fairly…
We have a commissioner who is unable to re-engage with the players and keep the dialog going…
We have a commissioner who is not good for the good of the game.
Clark was pretty clear about where the players stand. “It’s time to get back to work. Tell us when and where.”
Sadly, the commissioner retreated and responded by waiving a white flag.
Manfred has failed the players, the game, and the fans.
